Queenie's Song

Shy and withdrawn, ten-year-old Aimee seems an ordinary, under-achieving girl until a series of events force her discovery of the extraordinary powers that abide within us all. When Aimee is suddenly orphaned on her tenth birthday, she is sent to live with her only living relative, Aunt Delilah, whom she barely knows. And that is where she meets Queenie - a sassy, outspoken waif of a girl who reveals herself solely to Aimee. Queenie both goads and consoles Aimee on her headlong flight from her Aunt Dee's, to a psychiatric ward, through dark and forbidding forests, chased along the way by unforeseen enemies and aided by unexpected allies on her journey of self-discovery.

Set in the 1960's mid-south, Aimee's story is shared in strict third person closed, allowing the reader to see only what Aimee sees and know only what Aimee knows. As she gradually and painstakingly learns the true roots of her origin the voice of the story matures alongside Aimee, making Queenie's Song a smoldering, subtly nuanced psychological thriller that rewards with a bonfire ending.

In a dramatic shift of style from his first novel, Those We Leave Behind, Winters invites discerning readers of all ages into the world of Aimee Dee Newman, as she is forced into a two-week metamorphosis from a frightened and confused little girl into a force of nature as powerful and universal as the world's oldest religion.